Cannon Friday 4 Jan 02

[billski]

Absolutely excellent day, especially given the lack of natural snow. <BR> <BR>Crowds - none. Must have been 100 people on the whole mt. Staff outnumbered the skiers. Everyone was skiing and on the trails (not saving tables in the lodge.) No extended lunch for anyone. Still you felt like you had the mt. all to yourself. Made it perfect for high speed cruising and trails where you had to pick your turns carefully. they couldn't have made any money, perhaps except on the $3.89 hamburgers. <BR> <BR>Weather - a delight - Sunny, no winds, few clouds coming in later in the afternoon with a tease of snowflakes for a half hour. <BR> <BR>Conditions - Better than I expected. Pretty much everything had snow cover, though not necessarily open. I'd say 80% open for practical purposes. Not comparable to last year (we got spoiled) but the staff did a good job getting things open. <BR> <BR>All the greens a blues were entirely skiable and with a scratchy spot here and there. Solid base underfoot. No boilerplate or closed blues anywhere (cept maybe in the snowmaking). <BR> <BR> Sno guns running all day on two of the front four. Front four was more difficult to ski than last year, but we had it easy last year.... Plenty of moguls. <BR> <BR>Expert trails conditions were variable - they all had snow, but the ungroomed stuff like Upper Hardscrabble was showing earth, brush and some rocks. Still enjoyable if you know what you're doing. Intermediates stay away. <BR> <BR>Now, if you want a really good air, head over to Gary's or Rocket (I forget which). There's a large mound of snow, perhaps 8 to 10 feet high, left side about 1/4 way down, which will give you air like you haven't seen in years. No back to it at all, so you're high in the sky. Looks like a collection of snowmaking snow set aside for something. Get it while you can! <BR> <BR> <BR>I suspect on the weekends you'll see most intermediates on the same trails, but hey, that's true every day. <BR> <BR>Not enough snow to build a half-pipe or the Parkway Terrain park. Oh well, better snow on the trails, first things first. <BR> <BR>Lots of bumps all around, esp. in the ungroomed black diamonds, to be expected. <BR> <BR>A very enjoyable day. Dunno why everyone went over to Loon for such awful crowds. Guess it's that Cannon mystique. <BR> <BR>Guess Cannon has a reputation for ice and wind, scares many intermediates away. I've been taking my kids here since they were 7 with no problems at all. They love the terrain park. <BR> <BR>Hey, how come I hardly ever see boarders in the bump trails? <BR> <BR>Great day at Cannon. Goski!